


A Chilly Interlude

by Aris Merquoni (ArisTGD)



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Episode Related, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2012-08-12
Packaged: 2017-11-11 23:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/483977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArisTGD/pseuds/Aris%20Merquoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Turlough and Sarah Jane Smith find themselves in a pinch in Antarctica.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Chilly Interlude

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hhertzof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/gifts).



"You never did mention," Turlough said as he investigated the screws holding the ventilation shaft's screen to the wall, "why you stopped traveling with the Doctor in the first place."

Sarah Jane narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, trying to guess if he was being at all sarcastic, then sighed and sat down on the bunk bed opposite. "He just... left me," she admitted. "In Aberdeen."

Turlough turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "By your tone of voice, I suspect you didn't want to be in Aberdeen."

"No," she said peevishly. "I thought he was going to drop me in Croydon."

"Which isn't near Aberdeen?"

Now she was sure he was having her on. "How long did you say you lived in England again?"

Turlough snorted and turned back to examining the screws. "I hated Earth. I did everything I could to avoid learning about it. This looks like a hex nut; I don't suppose you have a two-mil Allen wrench?"

"Oof, no," she said, standing again and trying to peer past him at the screws. "What I wouldn't give for a sonic screwdriver about now."

Turlough climbed off the bunk bed and picked up his jacket, slinging it around his shoulders again. Apparently his species didn't have as much trouble with cold as humans did, but he wore the puffy jacket to fit in. Sarah was finding even the climate-controlled temperature in the Antarctic base to be on the chilly side.

"You could try raising a fuss about your press pass again," he suggested after a moment. "Might at least give us another chance at General Cutler."

Sarah Jane grumbled and shoved her hands under her arms. "Maybe," she said reluctantly. "But he didn't really seem the type to give me a second hearing. This whole thing stinks of something, doesn't it? I mean, routine space mission, everything normal, and then suddenly we're whisked off from our interview and locked in a room. We need to find out what's going on!"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Turlough asked. "Shall I pretend to be ill so we can jump the guard when he comes to check on us?"

"No..." She said reluctantly, then sighed again. "Oh, this is useless."

Turlough shrugged and lay down on the bed again, stretching his arms over his head. "Earth militaries have always confused me," he mused. "So much weaponry amassed and you don't really do anything with it."

Sarah Jane laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," she said. "We have had some spectacular examples of military use in the recent past. And the Brigadier always enjoyed getting to take his toys out to play against some new alien threat."

Turlough wiggled his hand noncommittally. "Yes, but on Trion, if we're not actually at war everyone goes back to being a civilian. It's not like this constant... standing at attention."

"The Doctor must have loved that," she said.

"Mmm," he agreed. "Maybe."

She looked him over thoughtfully. While Turlough looked human enough, and boyish, he was actually closer to her own age and less her own species than a potted azalea. When she'd seen him in trouble with the Snowcap Base staff, she'd recognized him from that madcap caper in Gallifrey's Death Zone and pretended he was her assistant. But that didn't answer what he was doing here in the first place.

"What are you even doing in Antarctica in the first place? Given that you can't stand Earth," she asked.

Turlough shrugged stiffly. "It just... seemed the sort of place the Doctor would wind up," he said.

"Oh," she said, suddenly feeling a flush of sympathy. "Did he leave you in the Trion equivalent of Aberdeen as well?"

He snorted. "Oh, no. I was so clever, I was sure I wanted to leave."

She raised her eyebrows. "And where did you want to go?"

"Home?" He puffed out his cheeks for a moment, then blew out the air in a blustery sigh. "But I suppose that home is one place you can never go back to, really. When you've been on the losing side of a coup, I mean."

Sarah Jane couldn't help but think of Turlough's particular way with the Snowcap Base military. "And who would want to overthrow you, I wonder?"

"Ha," he said. "It was hardly my fault. I was a minor second cousin."

"You learned to tell Captains in UNIT to stick their firearms in a very uncomfortable place as a minor second cousin?"

Turlough squirmed sightly. "I suppose that was the Doctor rubbing off on me."

Sarah Jane looked down at her hands, then back at the door. "Do you really think he's going to show up? For a routine atmospheric survey?"

Turlough raised his head. "Oh? Didn't you know?"

"Know what?"

"There's some kind of astronomical event happening out there. I caught something heading your way as I was flying in." He studied his fingernails for a moment nonchalantly. "It looked quite serious."

For a moment, she wanted to hit him with something, but the only thing handy was a spare pillow. Then she smiled. "Well, that settles it, then. If the Doctor is here, he'll need our help. And if he isn't--"

"If he isn't, General Cutler certainly needs our help," Turlough finished for her. He hopped to his feet and grinned. "I might be able to get a signal out to the transmat on my ship if I got hold of a radio to increase the range. That would at least get us a better vantage point, don't you think?"

"Excellent," she said, then turned and shouted through the door, "Guard! Guard, come quickly, my assistant needs a doctor!" As the sound of pounding feet echoed down the hallway and Turlough flopped dramatically onto the bed again, she turned to him and said, "You know, I'm glad you're the person who I was locked up with."

"And the same to you," he said, smiling, and then the guards slammed open the door.


End file.
